Monsters and Heroes
by An Orange Peon
Summary: Ragland told him that he had seen some of the worst that humanity had to offer. Now he asked him to go look for the best. But Alex Mercer never imagined that the search would take him and Dana to another world, or that he would come to learn just what it was that separated monsters from heroes.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

It was late in the night, but the sky was as red as fire.

From a room on the third floor of St. Paul's Hospital, Alex watched as thousands of people stampeded through the streets of Manhattan in unbridled terror. It reminded him of a herd of frenzied animals, and he pursed his lips tightly at the sight. Beside him, a darkly skinned doctor gave him a sidelong glance, observing him as though he was one of his patients.

"Not quite what you were hoping for, I presume?" Bradley Ragland said hesitantly.

Alex glanced back at him, turning away from the window. "Greene is dead. Blackwatch has been stopped. It's only a matter of time before the rest of the infected are killed. This is the best result anyone could have possibly asked for."

Ragland nodded silently, not daring to point out the bitterness and contempt that oozed out of Alex's voice. They both knew that his were empty words, and that calling this the "best result" was a bad idea of a joke. One only needed to look outside the window again for proof of that. Even now, the people were fleeing for the bridges and the ports, bringing with them only what they could carry as they tried to escape the island. Moreover, the fallout of the nuclear bomb that had gone off further off the coast of the island would continue to affect Manhattan and its people for months, if not years.

With a frustrated growl, Alex went over to the young woman who was lying comatose on the bed behind them. He stared down at her silently, and his expression changed, becoming softer and more anguished.

"How is she?" he said.

"Same as before," Ragland sighed, running a hand through his short, stubby, graying hair. "She's stable, but there's been no real changes. At the very least, she hasn't taken a turn for the worse."

Alex nodded. Gently, he reached down and brushed aside a lock of Dana's dark brown hair from her sleeping eyes. When he looked back up, he found Ragland watching him silently.

"I need you to keep taking care of her for me," Alex said. "Can you do that?"

"Of course," Ragland said. "But why? Where do you plan on going?"

"Don't know. Anywhere. Everywhere, I guess," Alex said. "Blackwatch is leaderless right now. Randall, Taggart, Cross, they're all dead. But that won't last forever. They'll reorganize, and once they do they're going to keep a close eye on both you and Dana. So I have to leave Manhattan while I still can; while they still think I'm dead." He glanced back down at his sister and clenched his teeth. "It's the best way to keep her safe."

"I understand," Ragland nodded. "What will you do once you're on your own?"

Alex went back over to the window and leaned against it. "There are some questions I want answered, Ragland. I want to find the answers to them."

"What questions?" Ragland asked. "Does it have to do with Blackwatch? Or Gentek?"

"No," Alex shook his head. "I've been doing some thinking. Am I human, Ragland? After everything I've done, knowing what I have become and what I can do, am I still human? If I am, how am I supposed to rejoin the human race? What do I do if I'm not?"

"So it's a journey of self-discovery?"

"Guess you could put it like that," Alex snorted. "If I see more of the world for myself, it might give me a fresh look on life. It might not. Won't know until I try."

Ragland fell silent and chose his next words carefully, and spoke with great hesitance. "Alex, I think what you're trying to do is a good idea. I know that what you've seen these past few weeks wasn't... well, it wasn't good. What happened here in Manhattan is some of the worst that humanity has to offer. I think now you should go looking for the best. We're not all monsters, you know. There are heroes out there, too."

Alex gave the doctor a brief glance, before giving him a short, curt nod. "I'll keep that in mind."

Ragland nodded back, even though Alex had already turned away from him again. He sighed in relief. "Would you like some time alone with Dana? To say your goodbyes?"

"Yes."

Ragland nodded again, and then left the room. Once he was gone, Alex turned around and brought a chair to sit at Dana's bedside. Though his body appeared tall and slender, the metal frame still complained loudly under the weight which belied his appearance. But it held.

For nearly five minutes, Alex did not move nor speak. He watched over Dana as the heart monitor beeped softly in the background. Then, slowly, almost tentatively, he reached out to her and slipped his hand underneath his sister's, taking care not to disturb the IV drip that was inserted in her hand.

"Dana," he said. "I need to go. Don't know where yet, but I figure I should let you know. Ragland already knows, and he's going to keep you safe, so you don't need to worry about that. And as long as I'm not here, Blackwatch shouldn't bother you, so you won't need to worry about them either. Keep your head down, though. They'll still be watching you for a while. I know that's not fair to you, since I'm the one who got you into this fucking mess in the first place, but... sorry. I hope you wake up soon."

With a sigh, Alex let go of Dana's hand. He stood up and moved his chair back to where he found it. After throwing one last look at his sister's comatose form, he turned to leave the room.

When he next awoke, he was lying in the middle of a forest.

* * *

When Alex opened his eyes, he found himself staring up at a blue sky through a canopy of trees, and was lying on a bed of soft moss and dirt. In the distance, he could hear birds chirping and the buzz of insects. Groaning, he sat up and rubbed his throbbing head.

"What the hell happened to me?" he murmured as his headache began to fade. He looked around to try to gain his bearings, but such thoughts vanished when he spotted another person lying supine in the dirt a short distance away. "Dana!"

Alex scrambled to his feet and rushed over to his sister's side. She was still in her hospital gown, but was without any of the vital life support machines that had been keeping her alive.

"Ragland!" Alex shouted, whipping his head around. "Ragland, are you here!?" When no answer came, Alex ground his teeth together and swore. "Shit."

He had no idea how long the two of them had been unconscious or how long they had been here. To him, it felt like mere seconds had passed since they were in the hospital, but he had no way of knowing for sure. He needed to get Dana back to a hospital, and fast. Otherwise, she would surely die.

Alex took a step away from Dana and crouched low, building up energy before jumping high into the air, easily clearing over the crown of the surrounding trees. As he hung in the air at the apex of his climb, he found that he was on an island about thirty or forty miles wide. There were no cities or towns on the island, but to the north and slightly east he could see a thin trail of white smoke rising into the sky. Desperate relief filled Alex as he fell back to the earth. Someone lived on this island. He could find help for Dana there.

As soon as he landed, Alex scooped up Dana in his arms and began walking towards the source of the smoke. A great impatience urged Alex to quicken his steps, but he dared not to risk Dana's health by jostling her any more than was strictly necessary. Instead, he took his frustration out on the insects that tried to land on her, swatting them away with a tendril grown from his shoulder with a snarl.

A mere ten minutes into the hike, however, Alex heard a wolf howl. Its voice was deep and bass-like, and far too close for comfort. Alex tried to ignore it at first, but then another wolf howled mere minutes later, even closer than before. This time, Alex could feel fear take root inside his heart – not for himself, but for Dana. She was completely defenseless right now, and would be easy prey for any pack of wild animals. Even with him there to protect her, if he was too greatly outnumbered, there was still a strong possibility that she could be wounded or even killed. It was with that in mind that Alex at last abandoned his earlier reluctance and broke out into a run.

The beasts realized then that their prey had sensed them, and they abandoned all pretense of stealth. Now there was only the chase. They came bursting out from the undergrowth, but it wasn't wolves that chased after Alex. They were wolf-like, in a way, but they were too large and lanky, with long, almost humanoid limbs, tipped with claws far too massive to be anything natural. Their inky black bodies seemed to melt into the shadows, making the white bone-like masks on their heads and the protrusions elsewhere on their bodies stand out all the more.

 _What the fuck are those things?_ Alex thought as he threw a brief glance over his shoulder. They resembled the werewolf of myth, but it was hard to believe that a fairy tale was what was chasing after them now, even as he was seeing them with his own eyes. But if not that, then what else? It certainly wasn't figments of his imagination that was pursuing them.

Despite his best efforts, Alex could not shake off these creatures. There was only so fast he could go in such a thick forest while burdened by Dana. The creatures, on the other hand, had no such burdens. They loped after him with an easy grace, their long limbs chewing up the ground between them as they expertly wove through the trees and ripped through the undergrowth like thunder. _I need to get some space!_

Alex adjusted his grip on Dana without ever breaking his stride. He held her body against him, while with his spare hand he dug his fingers deep into the trunk of a large tree. With a vicious snarl, Alex ripped it clean from the earth, root and all, and hurled it sideways at the werewolves behind him.

Splinters and leaves went flying in every direction. The beasts scattered in order to prevent being crushed by the unorthodox projectile. There were still more on Alex's flanks, however, but now they were warier. They knew now that he was no mere prey for them to hunt down and consume, and so they kept their distance even as they maintained their pursuit.

Strangely, even while accounting for their heightened caution, they made no other attempts to attack or even harry him. Were they trying to wear him out now, Alex wondered. He grimaced. So long as he didn't take severe damage, he could run almost endlessly; but Dana was another issue entirely. How much longer could she survive out here, like this? Days? Hours? _Minutes?_ It was not something he could afford to find the answer for. What Alex did not realize, however, was that they weren't being merely cautious; they had been waiting for an opportunity.

Half an hour into the chase, the forest broke ahead of them. Alex clenched his teeth as he found himself in a large, clear meadow – a perfect place to maximize the advantage of superior numbers.

In an instant, the werewolves came flooding out of the trees and surrounded Alex. He growled and ground his teeth so hard he could almost feel the layers being shaved away. Although he had no other choice, he had been pushed here and outsmarted by a bunch of monsters.

It made him angry.

Alex set Dana on the ground and transformed his arms, one into an enormous blade that was nearly as long as he was tall and just as wide as he was at its center; the other into a long bladed tentacle, which Alex whipped out to partial length as he snapped it loudly against the ground, kicking up grass and dirt.

"Come on, then," Alex spat. "I'll kill you all, if I have to."

They came all at once.

Alex lashed out with his whipfist first, swinging it fast in a horizontal arc. The bladed tentacle sheared through the bodies and limbs of three of the werewolves and stopped when it wrapped around a fourth. Alex reeled it in ahead of its packmates and bisected it with his blade. It was a good start to the battle, but not enough. His small victory quickly became meaningless. More surged forward, endlessly flowing towards him like a seething flood of oil. Four against that was like drawing out but a single drop from that flood.

Alex's blade flashed in the air, spilling blood as he killed the werewolves left and right, front and back, but he could never create any sort of opening to take advantage of. He was trapped at Dana's side, for if he dared to take even a single step away from her, the werewolves pressed in towards her from behind and from the flanks. It was a desperate battle just to keep her safe.

"Get away from her!" Alex roared when one werewolf came far too close for comfort. He fired his whipfist into its throat and the spiked ends pierced deep into its flesh. The barbed hooks on the end allowed Alex to maintain his grip as he pulled hard and dragged the werewolf face first into the dirt, where Alex stomped its head and crushed it completely.

Tendrils began growing from Alex's leg, connecting into the rest of the werewolf's corpse. He was taking too much damage fighting like this, and he needed new biomass to recover quickly. More, if he could just consume enough of these things, then he could build up enough store of biomass to unleash a large scale attack and wipe them all out in a single move.

But to his shock, nothing happened.

For a moment, Alex faltered, and in that moment he was struck heavily by a massive black paw. That pulled him out of his daze, but he was still surprised. He could not consume these things. Though their bodies were there, and though they bled, he could not absorb their flesh. They might as well have been made out of solid slabs of rock for all that he could do with them. And as Alex continued to fight, he was given another surprise: the werewolf he had just killed was beginning to _dissipate_ into thin air, until eventually it vanished without even a single drop of blood remaining.

Alex looked around. He had not noticed it before due to the flurry of combat, but now he noticed that this was not an isolated incident. Every single wolf that he killed disappeared shortly after their death. Once more Alex wondered just what the hell these things were supposed to be.

Whatever they were, their numbers were truly endless, or so it felt. Alex was slowly starting to be overwhelmed. He simply could not keep pace with their onslaught by himself, and eventually the unthinkable happened. Alex felt his heart leap to his throat when one of the werewolves managed to wrap its enormous hand around Dana's leg and begin to drag her away.

Alex lunged at the creature – but it wasn't he who saved Dana. From somewhere outside the ring of monsters, there was a crack like thunder, and the creature holding his sister dropped sideways to the ground with a hole the size of its fist in its slowly vanishing skull.

Instinctively, Alex whipped his head to the side as he tried to track where the shot had come from – just in time to see a red blur rush past him and for rose petals to flutter in front of his eyes.

Alex turned around and found a girl in a red cloak standing there in the circle with him and Dana. She wielded an enormous scythe, easily larger than she was, and for the briefest of moments her silver eyes met his icy blue. Then she turned to slaughter the monsters.

She was like lightning. A crimson lightning that bolted from one monster to the next, cutting them down faster than Alex could even blink. Interspersed throughout the slaughter, he could hear the sound of gunshots accompany the blade. Alex still had no idea who this little girl was or how she could be so powerful, but he found that he did not care. She was an ally, and that was enough.

With a vengeful snarl, Alex turned his attention back to his own work. He began pressing forward, moving into the crowd of werewolves while swinging his blade in large, circular motions. With each pass, he would cleave apart another of the beasts. Soon, the two of them had inflicted such heavy damage that the remaining werewolves at last turned and fled back into the woods. Alex watched them go, then reverted his arms back to normal and went and crouched down at Dana's side. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that she was unhurt.

The grass rustled as the girl approached him. Alex looked up at her. Her eyes went from his face to his arms then back to his face, and they widened in shock and... was that _wonder?_

"You can turn your arms into weapons?" she said in a hushed, awestruck tone. "That is _sooo_ cool!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"I called the hospital," said Ruby Rose. "They said they'll have a bullhead out here in about an hour."

The man in her room looked up at her from where he sat beside her bed, where his companion lay, and nodded curtly at her. "Thanks," he said, before returning his attention to the woman.

Dead silence filled the room for a minute after that. Ruby looked around awkwardly, wondering what to say. The silence was making her nervous.

"Sooo... umm..." she began. "Was that thing you did with your arms your semblance?"

The man looked at her again and furrowed his brows. "My what?"

Ruby wished that she had a clone. Then that clone could kick her in the rear. _What kind of stupid question was that?_ she berated herself. Talk about bad timing. This man was obviously worried sick about the woman. Why should he want to talk about his semblance? That wasn't what was important right now! She wished that Yang or her dad were here. They were so much better at this "conversation" thing than her.

"Uh, I mean, what were you guys doing out in the woods?" Ruby said hastily. "It's dangerous to be alone like that with all those Grimm out there."

There. That was a much more reasonable question to ask. Unless she was being too nosy? After all, it wasn't really any of her business to know what they were doing out there. Alone. In the woods. Oh, god. What if the reason why they were in the forest alone was because they were doing... _things_ – the gross stuff that Uncle Qrow sometimes talked about in his drunken stories?

Suddenly, regrets.

 _No, wait,_ Ruby mentally slapped herself. She had assumed that the woman had fallen unconscious because of the Grimm. But taking another look at her, Ruby noticed that the gown she was wearing looked like something from a hospital, which meant that it could have been a preexisting condition. And wow, she really should have noticed that before her mind went to the gutter. She blamed Qrow.

"The Grimm?" the man said, the creases on his forehead deepening even further. Ruby wished that he would stop. His forehead lines were scary!

"Err... yeah. You know," Ruby fumbled over her words and began fiddling with her fingers. "I mean, most of them might just be beowolves, but there's still a lot of them. It's, uh, bad. To get surrounded by them, I mean. Yeah."

The man stared at her. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Ruby groaned, her cheeks flushing bright red. "What the hell is a Grimm? Or a beowolf? Or a 'semblance?' _Where are we?_ "

Ruby frowned. Her embarrassment and nervousness was starting to bleed away, and was being replaced by confusion. "Wait, you mean you don't know?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking."

 _Okay, ouch._ Some of the embarrassment from before came creeping back, but Ruby still stared at the man bemusedly. She could _sort of_ understand not knowing what a semblance was – many people went their entire lives without ever awakening their own, though that didn't seem to apply to him – but how could someone not know what a Grimm was? Something wasn't right here.

"Well, the Grimm are all the monsters you see out in the world, and a beowolf is a type of Grimm," she explained nevertheless. "They're what you saw in the woods. Semblances are special powers that everyone has, once they've unlocked their aura. And we're on the island of Patch, off the coast of Vale."

Rather than looking satisfied by Ruby's answers, the man only became more confused. It was clear on his face. But he did not ask more questions on the matter. Instead, he suddenly switched topics. "Did you see anyone here on the island recently?"

"Other than the two of you, no," Ruby answered quizzically. "It's just me, Dad, and Yang – that's my sister – that live here, and they've both been out for a few days. Why?"

"I want to know how we got here," the man said, gesturing at himself and the woman. "If we've been kidnapped and left here, I thought maybe you might have seen who was responsible."

"You mean you guys didn't come here on your own?"

The man gave Ruby a look that screamed "obviously," but the word that came out of his mouth, much to Ruby's relief, was simply, "No."

"Well that doesn't make any sense," Ruby frowned. "Why would someone kidnap the two of you and then just dump you guys here? I mean, unless it was aliens."

The man gave her a flat stare.

"Sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood a little. Bad timing, I'm sorry, my bad." Ruby rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "Um... by the way, I never introduced myself. I'm Ruby Rose. What's your name?"

"... Alex Mercer," the man replied cautiously, staring at her strangely. Ruby had no idea why he was looking at her like that, so she cocked her head and blinked. For some reason, that seemed to satisfy him, because he then said, "This is my sister, Dana."

"Well, it's nice to meet you," Ruby said brightly. "I mean, I wish we met in a better situation, but, uh, yeah."

Why did talking have to be so _hard?_

"Yeah," Alex grunted.

"Do you want something to eat or drink?" Ruby said. "I mean, I'm not much of a cook, but I got some snacks, and there's soda and milk in the fridge."

"I'm not hungry," Alex replied. He glanced over at the only clock in the room. Ruby's eyes instinctively followed. There was still at least forty-five minutes until the bullhead arrived.

"Well, the fight left me hungry, that's for sure." Ruby stood up. "In fact, I'm starving. I'll be downstairs if you need me."

"Wait."

Ruby stopped in front of the door and turned around. Alex was staring straight at her with such intense focus that it made Ruby feel uncomfortable. She felt like she was a criminal about to be interrogated by a cop. She tried not to squirm, but she wasn't sure if she succeeded.

"Why did you help us?" Alex asked. "Those monsters could have killed you, and I don't have anything to reward you with."

"Oh, that's okay. I didn't do it for the reward."

"Then why did you do it?" Alex said. "Why risk your life for complete strangers? What is it that you want?"

"What I want...?" Ruby tilted her head. "Well, I wanted to save you guys."

"But why?"

"Because that's what huntresses do," Ruby said. "That's what it means to be a hero: helping people."

Alex narrowed his eyes at her, but not in an aggressive way. There was something curious about his expression as he stared at Ruby. But whether it was aggression or curiosity, being stared at for so long was making her feel uncomfortable again. Finally, Alex broke away and glanced back at his sister. He frowned for a moment, then stood up.

"You said you can't cook, right?" he suddenly said.

"Um... yes?"

"So you've been eating nothing but cookies and snacks while your dad and sister have been gone?"

"Well, I mean, I've had... okay, yeah, that's all I've been having," Ruby confessed quickly. She just couldn't seem to keep a secret underneath his wilting glare. It felt like he was going to yell at her if she tried to lie.

Alex nodded. "Is there anything else you'd rather eat?"

Ruby's eyes widened as she realized what he was trying to say. "Are you... going to make me something?"

"I owe you for saving my sister," he said gruffly. "Long as you have the ingredients for it, I'll make it for you."

"You don't have to," Ruby said hastily. "Besides, you should be resting too. I'd feel bad forcing you to work."

"If it wasn't for you, Dana would be dead," Alex said. "She's all I have left." He glowered at Ruby. "So what do you want to eat?"

Oh, god. Since when did such a simple, motherly question become so _intimidating?_ It sounded more like a threat than a question! Should... should she just lie and say that she wanted to eat cookies? On one hand, she would feel really awful making someone who had just come out of a life-and-death situation to cook for her. Not to mention, she knew that Dad wouldn't approve of a stranger going through his kitchen. On the other hand, as much as she loved cookies and other junk food, she _was_ getting pretty sick of it. Not to mention he was glaring at her again. Why did he have to keep doing that? And, well, hey. If he was offering, why not?

"I think we have all the stuff for it, so could you, I guess, make me a steak?" Ruby said tentatively.

Alex nodded. The two of them went down to the kitchen. While Ruby sat down at the table, Alex rummaged through the fridge. But at the oven, he paused and frowned. He poked a finger at the red crystal in the burner and frowned. "The hell is this thing?"

"That's fire dust crystal," Ruby answered. _Weird. How can he not know about the Grimm, semblances,_ and _dust? That doesn't make any sense. Where is he from?_

"Hm." Alex turned the burner on. Soon, the sound of meat sizzling on a hot frying pan and the aroma of beef and butter and thyme and all sorts of other wonderful smells filled the kitchen and dining room. After pulling the steak out and letting it rest, Alex plated it and set it down in front of an eager and all too ravenous Ruby. Looking at it, she knew it would be delicious even before tasting it. She dug into it with gusto.

"It's delicious!" she cried between mouthfuls. "Are you a chef?"

"Something like that," Alex said, his back turned to her. He had returned to the kitchen and seemed to be unusually intrigued by the dust crystal in the burner. He briefly touched it, then looked at his finger with a frown.

Ruby was starting to feel more confident. The mood had lightened considerably from before, and now she felt it was a good time to ask him something that had been on her mind ever since she saw him fighting against all those beowolves. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Hm?" Alex turned around to face her.

"What else can you change your arms into?" Ruby said, the half-eaten steak now sitting nearly forgotten now on her plate. "Because that is seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen. _Ever._ "

"Cool?" Alex was bemused. "First time someone's said that to me."

"Really?" Ruby was surprised. "But you can turn your arms into _weapons!_ How is that _not_ the coolest thing ever?"

Some people just had no taste.

Alex snorted. He lifted one arm and Ruby watched as it completely unraveled and reformed into a twisted mass of black flesh, tipped at the end with four talon-like claws. It reminded Ruby of a beowolf's arm, except his claws were even longer and sharper. They were more like short swords than anything else.

"Whoa," Ruby whispered. She had never even heard of a semblance that could affect someone's body so heavily, but it was a big world with as many potential semblances as there were people. What were the chances she would get to see something _this_ awesome?

From the claws, Alex cycled through a blade that was as long as he was tall, a bladed whip, and an enormous boulder-like fist plated in hard black chitin.

"So the claws are for lighter, faster opponents, that sword for larger ones, the whip for range, and the hammerfists for heavy, armored targets?" Ruby tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"Pretty much," Alex shrugged as his arm returned to normal.

"And you never need to worry about losing your weapon too," Ruby said almost awestruck, and with more than a hint of envy. Her own constant fear was if she somehow lost her Crescent Rose or, worse, if someone stole it away. "I know weapons are supposed to be an extension of ourselves, but you take it literally, huh?"

"Mmhmm," Alex said. "Your food is getting cold."

"Ah!" Ruby hurried to finish the rest of now lukewarm steak, before washing it all down with a cup of cold milk.

The bullhead arrived soon after. The EMTs came into her house and carefully loaded Dana onto the ship, while Alex watched them like a hawk. He boarded the bullhead with them, and to her own surprise, Ruby found herself standing there with him as well, a folded Crescent Rose in hand.

"What are you doing?" Alex frowned.

"I thought I'd go with you," Ruby said. "I'm worried about your sister too. And mine. Yang's been out for way too long, and she's not answering her scroll."

"A scroll?" Alex arched an eyebrow.

 _Grimm, semblances, dust, and scrolls now too?_ Ruby took out her scroll and showed it to him. "It lets me call or text people from far away."

Alex grunted. "Do what you want."

The doors slid shut and the bullhead took off into the air. They flew over the ocean and eventually arrived at the hospital, where they landed on its private heliport. Dana was rushed inside, while Alex met with one of the nurses, answered a few questions, and then he and Ruby waited outside the operating room until a doctor finally came out.

"You are Alex Mercer?" the doctor said to him. "The patient's brother?"

"Yes," Alex said. "How is Dana? Is she all right?"

"She's fine." The doctor smiled at him. "She's in no danger, though she'll have to remain here on life support for the foreseeable future." His smile faltered. "The problem is something altogether different, one that I am loathe to bring up but must. It's... well, it's a matter of payment."

Alex's expression hardened.

"I'm to understand that the two of you are not from Vale, and that you do not have any insurance," the doctor continued. "Unfortunately, the cost of care is not insubstantial."

"How much?" Alex said quietly.

The doctor glanced at Ruby for a moment, then pulled out a notepad and pen from his pocket and scribbled a number down. He handed the slip of paper to Alex, who frowned when he looked at it. He showed it to Ruby, and said, "Is that a lot?"

Ruby's eyes practically popped out of their sockets. There were enough zeroes there to supply her with a thousand comic books – and not just the cheap paperback ones, but the expensive trade copies too!

"Yeah." She swallowed, handing back the paper with trembling hands. "That's a lot. And that's per month?"

"Per _day._ "

Ruby paled; Alex grimaced.

"You can discuss payment options with the accounting office." The doctor put a hand on Alex's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "For what it's worth, I am sorry about this."

"I'll get the money." Alex brushed off the doctor's hand. "You just keep her healthy."

"Of course."

The two of them left the hospital. Outside, Ruby turned to Alex and asked, "How do you plan to get all that money?"

"Still thinking."

"My favorite restaurant is hiring, last I checked," Ruby supplied helpfully. "It's just a fast food restaurant, but it could be a start."

Alex stared at her. "That," he said, "sounds ridiculous."

"It was just a suggestion," Ruby complained.

"Don't worry about it," Alex said. "I'll figure it out. You should go find your sister."

"But you're not from around here, are you?" Ruby said. "You don't know Vale. How are you going to get the money you need?"

"I'll be fine. Trust me."

Ruby frowned, wanting to argue, but she held herself back. Fighting against the Grimm? Yeah, she could help him with that all day. But this? Making that much money? She had no idea where to even begin. In the end, all she could do was simply nod and give Alex a weak smile.

"All right. If you say so," she said. "Good luck."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It had been a few days since he left the hospital, and the hunt was not going well.

By the time Alex left the hospital with bill in hand, he had already come to the conclusion that it would be impossible for him to earn the sum of money he required on time – legitimately, that is. Instead, he decided to do what he did best and search the city's criminal underbelly for prey. If it was criminals that he killed and their money that he stole, he figured that he wouldn't attract as much attention from the city.

So far, however, he had only managed to nab a handful of thieves, and most of them were small-time crooks. With just that, he wasn't even a quarter, or even a fifth, of the way to meeting his first payment, which was due at the end of the month.

The greatest boon that those he had managed to hunt down and consume had given him was not their paltry change, but an understanding of why he was struggling to find more like them.

The problem lay in how this world was structured. And despite the memories he now held, he could still only barely believe what had happened to him.

He was in another world, one very different from Earth, called Remnant by its denizens. It was a world where every human had superpowers or the potential for it; where nearly all forms of technology relied on a mysterious substance which allowed for the control of elemental forces called dust; and where heroes known as huntsmen and huntresses wielded such power and technology to combat the Grimm, the evil mindless monsters that dominated most of the planet.

It was a combination of those three factors that stymied Alex's efforts now.

For its size, crime and corruption in the city of Vale was remarkably low. This was not because the people of the city were inherently kinder or better than the people of Earth cities of comparable size; it was because the Grimm were attracted to feelings of negativity, such as fear, anger, and sorrow. Criminals tended to engender such feelings within a populace, especially those guilty of violent crimes and drug trafficking. Thus, the government quite literally had an existential incentive to stop them. And with superhuman abilities and technology ripped straight out of sci-fi movies at their disposal, they were an incredibly effective force.

That was not to say that crime did not exist in Vale or that the city itself was entirely peaceful; only that there was very little for Alex to hunt, and most of those that he did find almost weren't even worth the effort.

Alex sighed. He wished that he could have dismissed these new memories of his as some sort of mass hallucination. That would have been easier to swallow than to accept that he and Dana had somehow been transported to another world. He might have, too, if not for what he had seen on Patch, and the irrefutable proof that hung above him now in the night sky.

There, the moon was _shattered._

A part of Alex wondered how he and Dana got here, but it was not a question he lingered on for long. Right now, he was far more concerned with ensuring that Dana continued to receive the medical care she needed.

It was for that reason that he now stood in front of a large nightclub in the seediest part of the city.

According to the thieves' memories, this was the club owned by the largest mob, and perhaps even the _only_ mob, in Vale: Junior's Club. On the surface, it was a completely clean business; but underneath that thin veneer, it served as a popular meeting ground for all sorts of undesirables to talk and make deals. And for that reason, it would also make for the perfect hunting ground.

Or at least, that had been Alex's initial plan.

There was a sign on the door. It read: _Closed For Maintenance Until Future Notice._ Alex pursed his lips tightly when he read it. Without the club, the criminals of Vale would remained diffused across the city, making it exponentially more difficult for Alex to hunt them down. He felt that he needed to know what happened here, so he tried to push the door open, only to find that it was locked. He pushed harder, and this time there was a metallic _crack_ as the lock broke and gave way. What he found inside was not a nightclub, but the wreckage of a battlefield. The entire place had been smashed to pieces, with the floor especially damaged. Dozens of men in black suits and red shades were assisting workers in clearing out all the debris.

Alex clenched his teeth. _Oh, yeah._ This was definitely going to be a huge wrench in his plans.

One of the mobsters, having seen Alex walk in, came to turn him away.

"Hey, didn't you see the sign on the door?" The mobster pointed at the entrance. "We're closed."

"What happened here?" Alex said, his tone making it clear that he wasn't asking so much as he was demanding to know the answer.

"Some crazy huntress tore the place up," the mobster said irritably. "Anyway, you need to leave."

Alex, however, shook his head. He had an idea now, thanks to the man in front of him.

"Tell Junior I want to talk to him," Alex said. "I have an offer to make."

The mobster arched an eyebrow. "Listen, the boss ain't got time to deal with you. He's busy. Now you need to go, or else there's gonna be trouble."

Alex didn't move. Instead, he looked past the mobster's shoulder, towards the back of the club. On the second floor, a man in a white dress shirt and black waistcoat was leaning against the railing, while twin girls in a red and white dress stood on either side of him.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" The mobster put a hand on Alex's shoulder and tried to force him to leave. "I said _move._ "

Without looking at the man, Alex put a hand against his chest and gave him a short, hard shove. He went flying in the air and landed nearly twenty feet away on a pile of collected debris. That got the attention of the rest of the mob. Within seconds, Alex was surrounded by guns. But before anyone could fire even a single shot, Junior cried out, "Stop! Stop!"

The mobsters lowered their guns, looking more than a little confused as they turned around to face their boss, who came downstairs with the twins in tow.

"We don't need any more damage to the club," Junior growled at the rest of them. He stopped in front of Alex, and glared at him. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"My name is Alex Mercer," he answered. "I'm here for a job."

The club fell silent. Junior stared at Alex as though he was insane. "You what?"

"A job," Alex repeated. "I heard a huntress did this." He gestured around at the club. "I can make sure that it doesn't happen again."

Junior blinked. Then he turned contemplative, and he began stroking his beard. "And you'll want something in return, of course."

"Lien," Alex answered. "I need money."

"And how much exactly would you be asking for?"

"Ten thousand. Per week."

Junior's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. "Ten _thousand?_ " he spluttered. "You're out of your mind. I'd lose less money by inviting that blondie to come back and wreck this place all over again. No deal."

Alex quietly clicked his tongue. It had been worth a shot. With that much lien, he wouldn't need to worry about money anymore. "We can negotiate my wage."

"I can pay you five thousand," Junior said. "That's more than what anyone else here gets paid. And that's only _if_ you can prove that you don't just have a big mouth."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Miltia, Melanie," Junior turned to the girls. "Take him out back and show us what he's got."

"Whatever," the twins said at the same time. Then the one in the white dress added, "Let's just get this over with."

His sentiments exactly.

The backyard of the club was enclosed by an eight-foot tall fence made of concrete, and was paved over with asphalt. It was spacious, with plenty of room for the fighters to move around. Alex and the twins took opposite sides of the yard, and at Junior's signal, the fight commenced.

Alex wasn't particularly interested in drawing out the fight. Having to prove himself so that he could work for a mobster made him feel sick. They were like him, in a way. Monsters in human skins. Back on Earth, they were exactly the sort of people he would have killed or left for dead. But this was for Dana, he reminded himself. He only needed to keep up this act until Dana was well again. And that was all the motivation he needed.

Miltia and Melanie came charging at him from two sides, metallic claws fastened around the hands of one girl and the other wearing boots with razor sharp heels. Alex did not move, and waited for them to come near.

The girl with the claws came low and from the left, thrusting her weapons to his flank. The other feinted, then attacked directly from the front, delivering a strong side kick towards his face. He allowed both attacks to pass with no resistance. There was a cry of surprise from all involved when they saw both claws and heels sink into his body like a knife through soft clay. Some blood spilled out of Alex's wounds, but his body quickly reformed around the girls' weapons, trapping them. Alex reached out and grabbed them both by the necks, and only then released their weapons so that he could throw them both across the yard. They slammed into the fence on the far side, and though their aura protected them from the worst of the blow, it still left them dazed. While they recovered and struggled back to their feet, Alex turned to a slack-jawed Junior.

"Is that enough?" Alex arched an eyebrow at him.

Junior closed his jaw. "What the hell was that?" he demanded. "Was that your semblance?"

"Yes," Alex lied. It was easier and less time consuming to just go with Junior's misunderstanding than it was to correct him – not that he had any reason to in the first place. And considering that he was not the first person to make the mistake, nor was he likely to be the last, it seemed like a pointless effort anyway. "So am I hired?"

"Yeah, sure. Of course." Junior jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Come on, I'll treat you to a drink. Then we can talk business."

Alex nodded, and followed his new employer back into the club.

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_

 _Normally, I don't like having to explain why a character is acting one way or the other in the author's notes sections; I prefer to have it either explicitly or implicitly clear through the content of the story itself. However, because I'm almost 100% sure that someone is going to ask this question, I'll go ahead and answer it now:_

" _Why didn't Alex just consume Junior?"_

 _To answer this, the first thing you need to understand is what Alex wants out of this situation, which is pretty straightforward: he wants money so that he can keep Dana in the hospital. With that in mind, he has three options to choose from, with each having its pros and cons._

 _1\. The first option is for Alex to simply consume Junior. If he does this, then he will immediately gain access to a large amount of information and money, the latter by way of being able to access Junior's safe or bank account or whatever._

 _Now, if Alex knew exactly how long Dana was going to be in the hospital, then this would actually probably be the best option for Alex to take that remains consistent with his personality. However, the problem is that Alex_ doesn't _know how long Dana will remain comatose, which means that what he needs is a constant flow of lien, and killing Junior for info and money is a one-time boost only._

 _By killing Junior, Alex destroys his best source of information in the future. And no more info = no more criminals to hunt = no more income._

 _Now you might say, "Since he has Junior's appearance and memories now, Alex could just take Junior's place and continue using his business and contacts to accrue money and information for himself." But to do that, Alex would need to ensure that there isn't even a single witness of Junior's death behind, otherwise word will spread, and it'd be way too suspicious for a supposedly dead man to still be kicking. That means that Alex will either have to kill everyone in the club or ambush Junior while no one else or very few others are around._

 _The former is a risky proposition, considering that Alex is now literally in a world of superhumans, whose capabilities he still isn't entirely familiar with. And it wouldn't just be his own life he'd be gambling with, but Dana's._

 _The latter isn't impossible, per se, but it would require Alex to basically be stuck in Junior's form full time, doing his job and living his life. That is both unappealing and way more difficult than it needs to be, especially once you compare it to Alex's other two options._

 _2\. The second option Alex has is to consume one of Junior's grunts instead. This gives Alex access to a steady stream of information by dint of being around Junior as he's making deals and meeting with people, and while other people are meeting in the club. It also gives him the freedom to slip away from his disguise and go hunting for criminals to steal their money, since he's literally just another face in a crowd of dozens._

 _The downside is that Alex's income would be unstable, as it would be heavily reliant on there actually being enough criminals for Alex to hunt to pay for Dana's bills._

 _3\. The last option, and the one Alex went with in this fic, is to hire himself out to Junior as a bodyguard. This has a number of advantages. Like the second option, Alex gains access to a steady source of information. Additionally, because he now has a job, he's also getting paid, making him less reliant on having a good hunt. He doesn't have quite as much freedom than if he were one of Junior's grunts, but he has more freedom than if he were to take Junior's place, and having a steady income means that he doesn't need as much freedom to come and go anyway._

 _The only downside is that Alex has to work for someone he doesn't like all too much. But considering that he's literally trying to keep Dana alive, that's not even something worth discussing in this situation because its effect on his decisions is minimal._

 _TL;DR: Alex doesn't know how long Dana is going to be in the hospital, so he needs a constant flow of money to keep her on life support. Killing Junior leaves Alex with no future source of info and income. It also takes way too much hassle to make this option actually work for him when he has far easier methods of achieving his goals instead._

 _\- AOP_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"The boss wants to see you."

Alex threw a glance over his shoulder and held back a sigh when he saw Miltia standing there behind him. With the club in ruins, there hadn't been much for him to do in the days since he had been hired as Junior's newest bodyguard, and that suited him just fine. Not only was he being paid to do nothing, which gave him time to hunt as he pleased, but he was loathe to the idea of having to do anything for a mob boss at all. He should have known that it was too good to last.

"What does he want?" Alex said as he pushed off the railing he had been leaning against.

"You'll have to ask him." Miltia jerked her head towards Junior's office, not far from them on the second floor. Alex held back another sigh and followed her inside.

Junior and Melanie were waiting for them. The mob boss gestured to the chair across his desk, which groaned loudly as Alex sat down on it, causing them all to arch an eyebrow at him.

"I have a task for you," Junior began without preamble. "With the club in its current state, there are some people who think that I've gotten weak. They don't think I can take care of them anymore. They say I can't protect them if I can't protect myself. You understand what I'm getting at?"

Alex nodded, even as his fingers twitched, wanting nothing more than to curl into fists and drive a hole through the man's head.

"They're not paying their due, is that it?"

Junior nodded, a faint smile crossing his lips. "It's good to have someone in the crew who can use his head for once. That's exactly it. I want you to go and show that Junior's Club is still a force to be reckoned with, and that we got some new muscle in our ranks. Bring me what they owe, and make sure that this doesn't happen again."

"I thought I was being paid to protect your club," Alex said irritably. "Not to go beat up some poor shopkeepers for you."

Junior pursed his lips tightly, while next to him the twins tensed up. "You're being paid to work for me. If you don't like it, leave."

Alex clicked his tongue. "Fine. Am I going by myself or what?"

"Take ten of the boys to go with you. But you're in charge of the operation. You keep them in line, and prove to me that you're worth the money I'm spending on you. Here's a list of the people who owe us lien."

Alex accepted the slip of paper Junior handed him and looked at it. There were only ten people on the list, all of them in downtown Vale. Alex nodded and pocketed the list as he stood up and said, "I'll be back soon."

"I'm counting on it."

Alex left the room. Downstairs, he picked out ten random grunts and ordered them to follow him, which they did with no complaints. The fight he had with the twins on the night he was hired had proven to them that he was not someone they should antagonize, not to mention that he technically had a higher rank than them in Junior's "business."

The first place they hit was a small sundry store, owned by an elderly couple. When they saw the eleven of them walk into the store and lock the door behind them, they instantly tensed and hugged close to each other for protection. Alex ground his teeth together so hard when he saw them that it was a miracle he was able to get any words past his lips at all.

"You know who we are?"

The husband licked his lips and nodded tersely. "You're with Junior."

"Then you know why we're here."

The man nodded again. But this time, he took a step forward and straightened his back, trying to appear brave as he put himself between his wife and Alex. "You can tell him that we're not paying him anymore. Everyone knows that a single student huntress was able to beat him. We don't need to be afraid of you people anymore."

"Really?" Alex growled. "Are you a huntsman?" The man bit his lips and shrunk back slightly. "No? Then what makes you think you don't need to be afraid?"

"I..."

"And more importantly," Alex continued, ignoring him, "when that huntress came" – he leaned forward and put his hands on the counter between them, and his fingers slid into long claws, leaving white scratch marks on the plastic surface – "I wasn't there."

The couple stared down in horror at Alex's hands. "Okay, okay," the husband shivered. He tapped a few buttons on the cash register and took out a stack of lien. "Here, just take it and leave us alone."

Alex grunted as he took the lien and handed it over to one of the grunts, who put it all into a black suitcase. "Make sure not to be late next time."

"We won't. We promise."

"Come on," Alex said, turning to the rest of Junior's boys. "We're leaving."

As they left the store, Alex could hear the sound of the couple crying in the background, before being silenced by the door closing behind him. It left him with a dark, sickly feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wanted nothing more than to wring the necks of every man following him before going on to do the same to Junior. But he clamped down on that feeling. He had Dana to think about. He needed to protect Dana. Without this, she wouldn't be able to survive.

That was what Alex told himself again and again as they recreated the same scene across nine other small businesses. Some of the owners were old like the first two; others were young or middle-aged. A few were on the verge of bankruptcy, but they were forced to pay anyway. Not a single one of them was left behind without tears and misery.

By the time Alex finally returned to Junior's Club, he was fit to finish the job that the huntress started. He wanted them dead. He wanted them to be excised from the city like the cancer they were, and he was so close to becoming the scalpel.

 _It's for Dana,_ Alex repeated his mantra. _After she wakes up, I can kill them. I'll kill them after she wakes up._

Alex took the suitcase full of lien up to Junior's office. He tried not to slam it down on Junior's desk, and only barely managed to succeed.

"Hm." Junior opened the suitcase and quickly counted the money. "Looks good. Well done. To be honest, I didn't think you'd actually do it. Wasn't sure if you had it in you for this line of work. Glad to see that I was wrong."

"You saying this was some kind of test?" Alex growled.

"Of course it was," Junior scoffed. "How else am I supposed to know what you're capable of doing?"

"Wasn't that what the fight was for?"

"That shows me what you can do in a fight," Junior rolled his eyes. "I wanted to know what _you_ can do. What you're _willing_ to do."

Alex clenched his teeth and closed his eyes so that he wouldn't stare daggers at the mob boss, but the knowledge that this had all been another stupid test only served to make him angrier.

"If that's it, I'm going back to my post," Alex ground out.

"Yeah," Junior nodded without looking up as he counted a stack of lien. "I'll have some more things for you to do tomorrow."

Alex grunted, saying nothing else, as he turned and left the room. For the rest of the day he oversaw the continued restoration of the club. It was easy work, requiring nothing of him, which left him with plenty of time to stew on the memories of the miserable, tear-stained faces of the shopkeepers he had helped extort. The more he thought about what he had done, the more murderous he became. It was a wonder that he did not lash out at anyone else for the rest of his shift. But once he was free, when his shift ended and he was released back into the city, he went on a hunt, more to vent than in search for profit.

His first prey of the evening was a mugger. He found the man attacking a faunus couple, surprising the male with a heavy wooden truncheon to the back of his head. He was knocked out instantly, collapsing dangerously to the ground while blood began to pool. The faunus woman cried out for help, but a rough hand seized over her mouth as the mugger began assaulting her too.

"Fuckin' animals," the mugger slurred loudly as he used his baton to hit the woman repeatedly in the ribs and legs. "Bad enough I have to work with beasts like you, but now you're trying to _breed_ here? You're all a bunch of fuckin' pests."

Alex snarled and ran up the sidewalk to seize the mugger by the back of his collar and pull him away from the woman. The mugger struggled free from Alex's grip by tearing off his shirt and whirled to face him. Even from here, Alex could smell the alcohol in the man's breath.

"Who the fuck are you?" the mugger said unsteadily.

Alex reached out to grab him again, but the mugger used his baton on Alex's outstretched arm. There was a meaty _thunk_ when the wood met flesh, but any injury it caused was negligible at best. This time, Alex wrapped his fingers around the muggers throat and lifted him several inches off the ground. The mugger wheezed for breath, but kept struggling by striking at Alex's head. Irritably, Alex seized the weapon with his spare hand and ripped it free from the mugger's grip and cast it aside. It clattered quietly on the street somewhere in the distance.

With the mugger immobilized, Alex glanced briefly over to the two victims of his assault. The man was still unmoving and was no doubt in critical condition; the woman had not suffered any apparent life-threatening wounds, but her left leg was purple and swollen and most likely broken. Judging by how she was favoring her side, her ribs were most likely in a similar condition.

Alex squeezed the mugger's throat a little bit harder. He made choked, spluttering noises and kicked and scratched at him more desperately.

"Do you have a scroll?" he asked the woman. "Can you call an ambulance?"

"Y-yes," the woman managed to hiss through the pain, tears streaming from her eyes. "It's in my purse, somewhere."

Alex looked around and found the woman's leather purse a short distance away from her, its contents partially spilled out into the street. He gathered them with his spare hand and handed it over to its owner.

"What will you do with him?" the faunus woman asked, nodding at the mugger.

"He won't be bothering anyone else ever again," Alex growled, leveling a cold glare at the man.

"You'll give him to the police?" the woman asked, also giving the mugger an angry glare.

"No."

The woman stiffened.

"Call the ambulance now," Alex said. "Your friend won't last much longer like this."

The woman nodded her head rapidly. She quickly turned on her scroll with trembling fingers and began to tap away at it with her thumb. Alex crouched low and sprung high into the air before she finished, landing on a nearby rooftop where he could consume the man in secret. The moment he was finished, Alex seized his head as a terrible headache wracked his skull. The man's entire life was being absorbed into Alex, every memory and thought he had ever had becoming his. It took nearly a minute for the process to finish, and then Alex lowered his hand and slowly worked his jaw free. He had been clenching them so hard that he could feel his joints crack as he opened them up again.

The mugger's name was Justin Reed. He was not a particularly noteworthy man, nor did he have a prior criminal record. He was married and had two children, one eight and the other nine. He lived a life that could have been found anywhere, both on Remnant and on Earth. If there was one thing to note about him, however, it was that he was a racist. Most of the time he hid it well, but today he found out he was being passed over for a promotion at work in favor of a faunus coworker. In his anger, he got himself drunk; and as was so often the case, the alcohol helped bring his anger out to the fore.

Ironically, and this Alex noted with something close to idle amusement, because he was normally a law-abiding citizen, he also had a lot more money than Alex's usual prey. Alex drew out the wallet that had gotten stuck in his body when he consumed Justin and opened it. There was only forty-eight lien in cash, but also a debit card which had access to a bank account with a few thousand lien in store. Moreover, Justin and his wife had separate accounts, so Alex had no qualms in deciding to raid the account come morning, when the banks opened again.

The unexpected boon had a marked effect in lifting Alex's mood. This combined with the payment from Junior he was due to receive would be enough to almost completely pay for a week's worth of Dana's cost of care.

After pocketing the wallet, Alex resumed his hunt. That night, he found two more prey, but neither paid off in any noteworthy way. Then came dawn. He would be expected at Junior's Club soon. Before heading over, he stopped by the bank in the form of Justin Reed, withdrawing all the money in his account, which came out to be just shy of four thousand lien, and then depositing it in another bank under his own name and form.

By the time Alex returned to the club, the construction workers had already arrived to resume repairs. He went up to Junior's office, already feeling his good – or at least slightly better – mood bleed away. Even with Dana's life on the line, he wasn't sure how much longer he could continue this. Sooner or later, he was certain that his patience would snap.

As he approached the door, Alex heard the sound of Junior's muffled voice from the other side. When he pushed the door open, the talking stopped and Junior looked at Alex. His eyes flickered briefly from the mob boss to around the room. There was no one else there.

"Who were you talking to?"

"Close the door first," Junior growled back. Alex did as he asked. Then the mob boss nodded and said a single word: "Neo."

There was the sound of glass shattering as a girl appeared in front of Alex, seemingly from out of nowhere. His reaction was instinctive and immediate. Claws came out and were bared, as his body coiled up and prepared to strike.

"Stop!" Junior cried out, shooting up to his feet. "Alex, this is Neo. She's not our enemy. I guess you could say that she's... an associate of an associate of mine."

Slowly, Alex relaxed. His claws shrunk back into fingers and he straightened his back as he looked down at the girl. She was small, around the same height as Ruby, but far more womanly in her figure. She wore a white jacket trimmed with pink, dark brown pants, and white boots that came up to her knees. Her hair and her eyes were both mismatched, with one side being pink and the other brown. She carried a folded parasol with her, which she spun lazily between her hands as she stared back at Alex with a slight smirk.

"What do you want?" Alex growled at her.

"Don't bother," Junior said, waving one hand irritably as he sat back down. "She's mute. I'll explain. See, a little while ago, before you came along, our mutual 'friend' came to borrow some of my boys for a business venture of his."

Alex tried not to snort or roll his eyes at the euphemisms.

"Turns out the job he has planned is a bit bigger than he initially thought." Junior shrugged. "He needs more muscle, so I'm sending you."

Alex crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Is this another test?"

"Not this time," Junior said. "This is the real deal. We're being paid a lot of money for this, so I'm _trusting_ you to not muck it up. Don't let me down."

 _You can trust me to rip out your spine and shove it down your throat._

"Fine." Alex looked at the girl. "Let's go."

Neo smiled and playfully poked the tip of her umbrella against Alex's chin. He snarled at her and tried to swipe it away, but she lightly pirouetted away from him and circled around him to the door. Alex looked back at Junior, who sighed exasperatedly.

"She's a bit weird," he said. "But she's close to Roman and strong like you wouldn't believe, so don't do anything to piss her off."

"I don't think _that_ is what's going to be the problem," Alex muttered as he left the room. Neo was waiting for him in the hall. He followed her outside, where a car pulled up in front of them, driven by one of the mobsters. Neo went in first, sitting in the back seat, and patted the seat next to her. Alex sighed. The three of them felt the car tilt heavily when he climbed in beside her. Neo gave him a curious look before tapping the driver on the shoulder.

They drove for about half an hour and arrived at an unremarkable apartment in the residential district. While the mobster in the front went to park the car, Neo led Alex inside up to the topmost floor. It was strangely quiet, almost as if no one lived there, but that notion was quickly dispelled once Neo knocked on one of the doors that lined the hallway.

"Who is it?" came a deep, gravelly voice.

Neo simply cocked her head and smiled.

After around ten seconds of nothing, there was a soft click as the door was unlocked and the two of them were allowed in.

Familiar men in black suits and red shades lounged about in the apartment space. Some were sharpening their swords; others were checking their guns. Sprawled lazily on the couch in the living room watching TV was a man in a white coat and black bowler hat. He had bright orange hair, a thick cigar hanging out of his mouth, and a cane leaning against the couch by his legs.

Neo danced up to the man and peered over his head. He reached up to swat her away, but there was no real effort to the movement and she easily slipped away. She pointed over towards Alex, and the man sat up to face him.

"You must be the new muscle," he said, taking out his cigar and letting it dangle between his fingers. The entire room was filled with its acrid scent. "Gotta say, you don't look like much. I was expecting Junior to send more than one guy."

"And she looks like a little girl," Alex pointed at Neo, who smiled at him with no warmth in her eyes. "What's she doing here?"

"Heh, guess that's fair," the orange-haired man grinned. "You're different from the rest of these mooks. For my sake, I hope it's more than just because you wear different clothes." He held out a hand. "The name's Roman Torchwick."

Alex glanced at the offered hand, but didn't take it. "Alex Mercer."

"All right, Mercer," Torchwick said, withdrawing his arm easily. "Here's the deal. Tonight, we're gonna be... ahhh... _collecting_ some dust from the city. We need some extra hands to help carry it all to the drop off point, and a strong arm in case certain people get wrapped up in our business. You understand?"

"I'm going to help you steal dust and fight off the cops or huntsmen if they show up," Alex said. "What's not to understand?"

 _The sooner I get this over with, the better._

"Heh. A real head on this one, don't you think, Neo?" Torchwick stuck his cigar back in his mouth and glanced over to the girl, who nodded brightly. "Well, there's not much to do while we wait, so why don't you just relax for a bit?"

"Hngh," Alex grunted and went to lean against the wall, near the balcony. He did not move from there until the sun began to set, and the shattered moon of Remnant rose to take its place.

"All right, you mooks," Torchwick called out as he stood up and grabbed his cane. "Let's get this show on the road."

They split into two groups, one led by Neo and the other by Torchwick. Alex was with the latter, and together they prowled into the shopping district. Everyone who saw their group, marching with clear ill-intent, gave them wide berth and scurried off in another direction. The first few dust shops they robbed reminded Alex of when he extorted the shopkeepers on Junior's behalf. It was largely the same scene, with the only difference being that when some of the owners refused to cooperate, Torchwick ordered for the store to be vandalized, or worse. Either way, he got what he asked for.

It was only when they arrived at a shop owned by a single elderly man that things changed.

A little store, with a single customer in a red hood hidden behind some shelves, called _From Dust Till Dawn._

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_

 _Changed the title of the fic. Formerly known as Clearer Trails. Also rewrote the previous chapters, but nothing too major. Biggest change would be to chapter 2, where I expanded a bit on the conversation between Alex and Ruby._


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Alex glanced up at the sign of the shop they meant to rob. _From Dust Till Dawn_ it read in dull golden letters. Roman Torchwick pushed the door open and strode confidently inside, while Alex and the rest of Junior's men followed behind him.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" Torchwick drawled as he took his cigar out of his mouth and tapped it lightly with his finger, scattering ashes on the floor. And then, suddenly, one of Junior's men pulled out a gun to emphasize the purpose of their little "visit."

"P-please!" the elderly shopkeeper said from behind his counter, putting both hands into the air. "Just take my lien and leave."

"Shhh, calm down," Torchwick said in a way that was almost kind. Almost. "We're not here for your money." He turned to one of the grunts and all pretense of kindness fell from his face and tone. "Grab the dust."

The grunt put a large black box on the counter and opened it. Inside were canisters used to store powdered dust, which were sold in glass pipes along the walls. Alex received one from that grunt and sighed as he went to do his part in robbing the shopkeeper of his livelihood. Behind him, he could hear another of the mobsters demanding the dust crystals that were on display underneath the glass counters.

 _What am I even doing?_ Alex wondered, shaking his head. He had to consciously work at keeping his hand relaxed, lest he accidentally crush the canister in his grip out of frustration. _It's for Dana,_ he had to remind himself. _I need to do this to keep Dana alive._

But did he really? There was a niggling feeling in the back of his head, and he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps he had overlooked something. Wasn't there something else he could have done to acquire the funds necessary to continue to pay for Dana's hospital bills? Had he truly thought over all his options before latching on to what he at the time thought had been his only real choice?

Before Alex could answer that question, a sudden crash interrupted his thoughts. He turned around and saw one of the mobsters lying amidst a pile of plastic bottles and bagged chips, groaning painfully. One of the other grunts went to check what happened and disappeared behind one of the shelves. There was a girlish shout, a pained cry, and then an all too familiar streak of crimson as both the mobster and his would-be victim went flying through the window, scattering glass everywhere outside.

Alex's eyes widened. Torchwick and the rest of the mobsters went out to face their new foe, but Alex had seen _her_ fight before. Torchwick aside, as Alex knew nothing about him, he knew that the mobsters had absolutely no chance against her. Indeed, within a matter of seconds, Ruby Rose defeated them all without breaking a sweat. Fortunately for them, she avoided using the blade of her scythe, so they would all live to see another day.

She shouldn't have been nearly so merciful.

"Hey, how about a little help out here?" Torchwick called out once he realized he was alone.

Alex grit his teeth together and balled his hands into tight fists. He could feel his nails dig into his palms. Slowly, he emerged through the doorway to stand in front of Torchwick and face Ruby, whose silver eyes widened in shock as he revealed himself.

"Alex?"

"You _know_ her?" Torchwick said, arching an eyebrow at him.

"Ruby," he growled, ignoring the thief. "Leave."

"Alex, what are you doing?" Ruby said. "Are you... are you _working_ for him?" She gestured with her scythe at Torchwick.

"Not by choice," Alex spat.

"Oh, that hurts," Torchwick drawled sarcastically. "And here I thought we were close friends."

Alex glanced over his shoulder and glowered at the thief. "Shut up. I will kill you."

Torchwick smirked and leaned casually against his cane.

"Is this about your sister?" Ruby asked. "Is that why you're working for him? For the money?" When he didn't reply, she pressed forward. "This is wrong, Alex. Just because you need the lien doesn't mean you can rob innocent people. Please don't do this. Don't make me fight you."

Alex let out a long breath, as he stared back into Ruby's pleading eyes. Such nice words, he thought. So pure. So innocent. So _heroic._ He glanced back over his shoulder and said to Torchwick, "Go."

That man didn't need another warning. He immediately turned and ran away.

"Stop!" Ruby cried out, making to intercept him, but Alex cut her off and stood in her way. "Alex..." Ruby stared at him with a crestfallen expression. Nevertheless, she raised her scythe into a combat ready stance. "Please step aside. I don't want to have to fight you."

"Yeah," Alex sighed, transforming his hands into claws. "Me neither."

And then, to his surprise, Alex realized that he meant what he said. He did not want to do this. He did not want to have to fight Ruby. Without her, Dana would have been torn apart right before his very eyes, and for all his great power he would have been helpless to stop it. He did not want to fight against the person who had saved his sister's life. He wasn't sure that he could.

That was a strange thing to think, some distant part of Alex's mind whispered to him. It was only natural for the hero to face off against the monster. That was how every story went.

Anger suddenly rushed into Alex, filling every part of his mind with an all consuming fire. This didn't sit well with him. Nothing about anything he was doing right now sat well with him. The extortions, the robberies, Junior and Torchwick – none of this was what he wanted to do. But then the fire seared away every other thought in his head, and it left Alex with a single moment of perfect clarity.

None of this was what he _needed_ to do either.

Alex lowered his hands, his claws melting back into fingers, and he stood aside. Ruby blinked at him, before lowering her own weapon and dashing forward, whispering a quiet "Thank you" as she passed him by.

Alex could only shake his head and chuckle humorlessly at that. Why the hell was she thanking him? If it wasn't for the fact that Torchwick was obviously the ringleader of their group, she ought to have been trying to arrest him too for his part in their crimes. He watched her back for a few minutes, as she chased Torchwick to a nearby rooftop. A part of him wanted to go help the little girl, if only because he wanted to be there to kill the thief himself. But when a second huntress arrived as an ally, Alex decided to leave. If she found out that he had been working with Torchwick, his betrayal notwithstanding, it was more than likely he would end up getting wrapped in a fight with Ruby after all.

But that was just as well. He had other matters to attend to.

It was time for him to renegotiate his terms of employment.

* * *

Someone – undoubtedly Torchwick, assuming he got away – must have contacted Junior and told him of what had happened, because by the time Alex arrived at the club, he was met with thinly veiled hostility. Every mobster there kept a wary eye on him, their fingers playing dangerously close to their guns, swords, and axes. Alex ignored them all as he went up the stairs to Junior's office.

"You!" Junior seethed as soon as Alex opened the door. "What the hell were you thinking? I told you to go serve as Torchwick's backup and now I hear that you turned on him? What kind of game do you think you're playing?"

"A game," Alex bristled. "That's a good way to put it. I've been trying to play at a fucking game that I shouldn't have and didn't need to. I should have done _this_ from the start." Without warning, both of Alex's arms unraveled into a mass of black tendrils. They launched forward, with one slamming against Junior's chest and pinning him to the wall behind him, a foot off the ground. The other did the same to Miltia who stood next to him, and a third similar appendage grew from his side to immobilize Melanie. "I should have thought of this first," Alex repeated. "I never needed to work for you. I don't know why I thought I did. It was you, Junior. You showed me that I have another option."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Junior gasped out from underneath the crushing pressure of the wriggling tendrils.

"Protection money, Junior. You should know how it works." Alex smiled thinly. "Ten thousand lien per week; forty per month. That's how much you're going to be paying me from now on to keep you safe."

"That's insane," Junior spat. "You know I can't pay that much."

"You must not value your life very much, then."

Junior went white.

"Here's the deal," Alex said. "You keep paying me the money I ask for, and I'll leave you alone. But you don't get to extort or harm anyone else ever again. That's done. You run your business clean or not at all."

"Don't you think it's hypocritical to tell someone to stop doing something when you're doing the exact same thing as them?"

Alex bared his teeth. "Do you think I care? Do I look like some kind of a hero to you?"

"You look like a monster," Junior snarled.

"We're both monsters," Alex said. "The only difference is that you chose to become one."

Junior glared at him balefully. "Fine," he growled. "You win. Forty thousand a month. Just let us go."

"Good." Alex withdrew his tendrils and let all three of them fall back to the floor. "Then you can consider this my formal resignation."

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_

 _Sigh._

 _I think that's the best way to start of this set of author's notes, because I am about to address something that is incredibly stupid and yet crops up all too often in the reviews for pretty much any Prototype fic._

 _That something is the subject of Alex's humanity, or lack thereof._

 _One of the common ideas of Alex's characterization is that he is a complete monster, who cares nothing for no one and will kill and consume pretty much anyone he wants. This is shallow, and even toes the line of what would be considered fanon. The only reason why I wouldn't consider this complete fanon is because it at least has **some** grounding in canon. (Or in the case of Prototype 2 Alex, it is completely canon. But since this is not P2!Alex, and I will most likely never write a P2!Alex fic, we can disregard this completely.) Early game Alex **was** pretty much a complete monster, save for his relationship with his sister. _

_But that's the thing._

 _ **Early. Game.**_

 _Whenever people say "Zomg, Alex wouldn't care about anyone except himself and Dana," I just facepalm. I can only assume that either A) those people never actually played the game past the first hunter battle because it was too hard, and decided to just read a bunch of fics and spread more fanon instead; or B) they paid little to no attention to the actual **story** of the game._

 _Here's the thing: Is Alex a nice guy? No. Is he a hero? Oh, **hell** no. But that claim that Alex only cares about himself and Dana is something so easily refuted that it beggars belief how anyone could even come to that conclusion._

 _If Alex really was so selfish, he wouldn't have claimed that the original Mercer's act of unleashing the virus on Manhattan was unforgivable. He wouldn't have nearly sacrificed himself to save Manhattan from the nuke. And while some people might claim that these, or at least the latter, was done to protect Dana, you'll note that at no point does he ever talk about Dana and the nuke in the same conversation._

 _And even if you were to disregard those examples, the Anchor storyline from the comics lends further credence to my position. For those of you who haven't read the Anchor – and you honestly aren't missing all that much, because it's pretty bad – it shows how Alex went from being this anti-hero/anti-villain type character from P1 to a complete monster in P2._

 _What's relevant from that comic is not what he becomes, because that goes into P2, but what kind of person he started off as. In the beginning of the comic, which takes place shortly after the end of P1, Alex is traveling around the world in what can basically be summed up as a soul searching journey. In the process, he ends up helping a lot of people. He kills a warlord in Africa who has been terrorizing other people; he liberates a town from a drug cartel that enslaved the citizens; he even starts to fall in love with a woman (which, spoiler, is what causes him to turn evil when she betrays him). This is the Alex that has arrived in Remnant, with the caveat that he also has Dana to take care of.  
_

 _Now you can argue that he wasn't actually trying to help the people who were suffering, but rather that he was out to punish the guilty instead, and that would be a valid thing to say. Except it **doesn't matter.** If he was as selfish as some people claim, then he wouldn't have cared either which way.  
_

 _Just... ugh._

 _Honestly, it's comments like these that made me quit writing Prototype fics for a while some time ago. It's just so stupid, and it makes me want to pull my hair out. And while I would completely agree that my representation of Alex in this fic may not be 100% canonically accurate, as honestly this fic is just something I'm doing when I feel the need to free write so I'm not too concerned about the finer details, I can guarantee you it is a lot closer to his actual characterization than this complete monster fanon!Alex some people keep thinking that he is._

 _Or to put it another way, just because you spent hours randomly killing civilians for fun and stress relief doesn't mean that's what Alex actually did in the story. That's just you._


End file.
